The Peopling of a Plains State@@@People of Kansas: A Demographic and Sociological Study

The rise of ethnic awareness in the United States over- turned the melting pot and altered beliefs in American assimilation. Garden City, Kansas is host to communities of resident Mexican Americans and newcomer Latinos. Both groups arrived during different historical periods in search of jobs under different economic and politi- cal conditions. Mexican Americans and Latinos are very different popu- lations with diverse ethnic characteristics. This paper reviews the cir- cumstances behind the immigration of both populations to this Great Plains state and reviews the extent of ethnic relations among and be- tween "native** Mexican Americans and newcomer Latinos. What role has ethnicity played for each group, and what is their relation to the greater population of Garden City? The Mexican American community by nearly a century's residence has changed in the course of time and today faces internal conflict. The immigrant Latinos are a very mobile and young population who live on the periphery of community life. Changing market conditions and the high employment turnover rate keeps the immigrant Latinos highly mobile and powerless. Despite ex- periences elsewhere in the United States where different Hispanic popu- lations formed a collective identity based on a common language, no

Immigrant Latinos

Papers

In Garden City, Kansas: Ethnicity And Ethnic Relations